1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming medium capable of forming an image supplied from a smartphone or the like without using an image forming apparatus, a method for producing the image forming medium, and an image forming method using the image forming medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are various methods for image formation to obtain a print (hard copy).
For example, in silver halide photography, an image is formed by exposing a photosensitive material (photo film or photographic printing paper), which is sensitive to light of red (R), green (G), and blue (B) to develop colors of cyan (C), magenta (M), and yellow (Y), to light and carrying out a development treatment. For the exposure method, methods of projection, scanning exposure using a laser beam, and the like may be used.
In an ink jet method, an image is formed by jetting ink droplets to an image receiving medium such as paper by an ink jet head which jets ink droplets of C, M, and Y or further black (B) according to an image to be formed.
In a thermosensitive sublimation film, a thermosensitive sublimation film having dyes of C, M, and Y having thermosensitive sublimation properties is heated by a thermal head according to an image to be formed and the sublimated dyes are transferred onto image receiving paper to form an image.
In addition, an image forming method including heating a thermal film having dyes of C, M, and Y to be color-developed by heating, by a thermal head or an exposure head for heating according to an image to be formed and developing the colors of the dyes of the thermal film is also known.
According to these image forming methods, it is possible to store the formed image as a print for a long period of time. However, in any of these methods, an image forming apparatus (printer) is required.
For example, in image formation by silver halide photography, a photo printer having an exposure device for exposing a photosensitive material to light according to an image to be formed and a development device for carrying out a wet development treatment, such as development, bleaching, and fixing, on the exposed photosensitive material is required.
In addition, in image formation by an ink jet method, an ink jet printer having an ink jet head for jetting ink droplets, moving means for relatively moving the ink jet head and an image receiving medium, and the like is required.
Further, in image formation using a thermosensitive sublimation film and a thermal film, a thermal printer having a thermal head or an exposure head for heating exposure, moving means for relatively moving the head and a film, and the like is required. The exposure head for heating exposure is a so-called thermal mode exposure head.
In contrast, image forming mediums which do not require an image forming apparatus are disclosed in JP1993-278332A (JP-H05-278332A) and JP1996-510067A (JP-H08-510067A).
The image forming mediums disclosed in these documents are configured to include a x-y matrix electrode composed of a plurality of x electrodes which extend in an x direction and a plurality of y electrodes which extend in a y direction perpendicular to the x direction, a heat generating resistor which is disposed between the matrix electrodes, and a thermal recording layer which is provided on one electrode of the matrix electrode.
In such an image forming medium, the intersection of the x electrode and the y electrode in the matrix electrode is a pixel for forming an image.
In the image forming medium, according to an image supplied from a personal computer, a smartphone, or the like, the heat generating resistor is heated at the intersection of the both electrodes by applying a current to the x electrode and the y electrode corresponding to a pixel to be color-developed and the thermal recording layer is color-developed by the heat so as to form an image.